V · Of Petition
Petition
On addressing the Society.
The Society does not recruit. It accepts petitions from those who, having read these pages and — more importantly — the works named in the Library, find themselves persistently drawn to the manner of working described here.
A petition is a private letter. It is sent in writing, and read by the Council. There is no form to complete, no portal, and no application.
Form of the Letter
A petition should be brief, and composed by the petitioner alone.
Between five hundred and two thousand words. The Council does not value rhetoric; it values precision, honesty, and what it can read of the petitioner's habit of mind. Address, in your own composition, the following:
- Who you are, in the most concise terms — your age, your present situation in life, your education insofar as it bears on this letter.
- Which of the works named in the Library you have read, and which have entered your own thinking.
- What disciplines of attention or conduct you presently practise, and for how long you have done so.
- Why you have written this letter, in your own words.
- What you imagine you would receive from the Society, and what you imagine you would give.
Address petitions to
contact @ ssafr . org
Procedure
What follows the sending of a petition.
A petition is acknowledged within a season. If the Council finds it suitable, a correspondence is opened with a senior member, who will reply at intervals over the following months. The correspondence is itself the first stage of formation: it is observed how the petitioner reads, how they think, and what they sustain over time.
Acceptance, when it comes, comes as an invitation to render the annual contribution — a sign of personal commitment. The first such payment constitutes entry into the degree of Discipulus.
If the petition is declined, no reason is given. The petition may be renewed after the passing of three years.
A Note
The Society does not promise, by acceptance, any of the goods that human beings sometimes seek in fellowships of this kind: not friendship, not status, not consolation, not protection from the difficulties of existence.
It offers only what is described in these pages — a discipline, a canon, and the company of others who undertake them.
Those for whom that is enough are warmly addressed.
Quod scripsi, scripsi. — What I have written, I have written.
Sub Rosa.